Sometimes I struggle with making decisions. For many years, I even needed several opinions on what to wear each day before settling on an outfit. When it comes to bigger decisions? I pull out all the stops, creating pros vs. cons lists, surveying every friend/relative that I think won’t tell the other I already asked them, and struggling internally until I often just flip a coin to make the choice or collapse wondering how I will ever choooooooosssee. Picking an option, especially when it can have far reaching consequences in your life, can be hard. And finally, as apple products have trained me to think, there’s an app for that. In this case, it’s a free web tool created by Ben Gimpert. He’s calling it Something Pop, and it’s the result of a hobby (a pretty useful one, I might add). It’s motto is that it helps you make better decisions by making your priorities pop.

Basically how it works is that it quantifies everything that you list as important to the decision to provide a mathematical, objective outlay of which is the actual best decision, not just the decision you bullied your best friend into telling you was the right one. There are big categories already entered for you like, which job to take, which apartment to rent/buy, which city to move to, leaving academia, but then there is the more ambiguous choice of “something else” that you’re deciding, like which kind of couch to buy. I know I agonized over that choice this past summer.

Once you know the decision you have to make, you input your priorities. In the case of my couch, I was looking at color, price, softness, and removable cushions. You give each a percentage rating of how important it is to you. Then, step two is listing all the options available. There’s the couch at Macy’s, Jennifer Convertibles, and my dream Crate and Barrel couch. Each field has prompts in case you’re unsure of what to add.

Step three is to rank how your options stack up against the priorities you set on a D- through A+ scale. In my case, I would need to see if the color is right at Macy’s, but the price was WAY TOO HIGH at Crate and Barrel. Then they make you a chart that averages how your couch stacks up. Thought the Crate and Barrel couch was a dream come true, it got a D- on affordability (an important priority), and thus, ranked below the couch I actually ended up buying. It’s a list-maker’s dream. Input all the variables you want, and then look at how they rate. The charts don’t lie.

Recent research I read about in t the April issue of Self magazine shows that the most successful people prioritize leisure time. This news comes as no surprise to me. I have always needed fun breaks since studying in college. If I didn’t go to that party Tuesday night, I was only distracted and annoyed when I tried to do work. It was much more productive to set aside a couple hours to finish the paper, then go to the party. It was a motivation to get it done with a reward in the not too distant future. This study, conducted by the University of Wester Sydney found that when people made time for fun activities, they were more productive at work, which helped them to earn more in the long run. So, next time you’re chaining yourself to your desk, think about it. Will you work as devotedly and efficiently when you’re missing book club with your friends, or will you procrastinate out of annoyance? It might make more sense to cut out for some quality time, and then use your renewed energy to tackle that project tomorrow when you’ve had your fun, and a ready to get down to business again.

It’s Thursday, or as some people think of it, Thirsty Thursday- a pretty popular night to go out, and get a jump on the upcoming weekend. If you are looking for a good excuse to skip happy hour (other than your Netflix queue), check out the Drinking Mirror app. It will show you the future ruddiness, sagginess, and over-all blah-ness of your skin after years of alcohol consumption at your typical rate. This app offers you a look at Christmas Future, to see if that extra shot is really worth its consequences for your face!

Today is my birthday. I have spent the day receiving cards and well wishes from friends and family who have taken me on a trip down memory lane, remembering all of the fun things we have done together through the years, and the past awesome ways we have celebrated together.

Last year I rang in another year of life by learning the flying trapeze, eating French vegetarian cuisine, and having the most wonderful happy hour at my favorite neighborhood bar complete with birthday hats, homemade doughnut holes, and the company of the best friends I could imagine. It was the perfect combination of learning new things, and enjoying my favorite everyday people and places. Gosh, it seems like so much longer than a year ago- a sure sign that I have done and accomplished a lot in the past 12 months!

This year, in the same spirit, I have a lot on my agenda. I have always enjoyed reading the lists of some of my favorite bloggers and how they spend their time in between the yearly milestones, so here are a few of the new/exciting/ordinary/bold things I have planned  before my next birthday rolls around.

1. See the newest Cirque du Solei: Amaluna
2. Eat Taco Bell Breakfast
3. March in the Coney Island Mermaid Parade
4. Attend a Huge Family Reunion
5. Learn to fire a few different kinds of guns
6. Find a flattering crop top and wear it in public
7. Read/Watch Game of Thrones
8. Go to Medieval Times
9. Visit Chicago
10. Camp on the beach
11. Run a 10K
12. Celebrate the marriages of two of my dearest friends
13. Watch all the Die Hards
14. Skydive
15. Make homemade pickles
16. Ring in the New Year at the Rose Parade
17. Go to Coachella

Any suggestions of what else I should try this year?

I never get tired of thinking, “There’s an app for that!” when I learn of a cool new feature I can download to my smartphone. The stuff we can do with just our cell phones these days, well, let’s just say it really beats walkmans, amirite?

There is nothing worse that going on vacation to a far away locale, and then becoming narcoleptic at all of the wrong times. I have experienced it first hand, falling asleep in the middle of evening barbecues in Hawaii, and being wide awake long into the night in Spain. Jet lag is such an annoying consequence of finally getting to visit that far flung country, especially when you only have a few days to enjoy it before you have to go home and go through the brutal time adjustment process all over again.

Well, friends,now  there’s an app for that! It’s called Entrain, and the friendly folks who created it used data from a University of Michigan study that sussed out how to beat jet lag by using timed sleep and light exposure to reset your body’s clock. All you have to do is input your home time zone, and the hours you are exposed to light and darkenss. Then you tell the app where you’re going, and if you’re travelling for business (read: will be stuck inside all day) or pleasure (and may be lounging on a beach). Then using the statistics from the study, it will give you an ideal schedule for what to wake up, go outside, and go to sleep along with an estimate of when you can expect to feel back to normal so you don’t have to be subjected to the WHEN WILL THIS FEELING ENDDDDDD stress of feeling all out of sorts. I will definitely be downloading it before my next international trip.